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Tellus blinked, the green eyes pleading as they trembled, on the verge of tears. "You think I'm taking my life for granted. I'm worse then an invalid in this shape. My mere presence is a danger to those I care about. My children's life is in danger just by having me hold them and not being able to control myself. I get near any major source of energy and I either greedily suck it up or I countermand it. Yes, I had a crutch in the incubus. He took my energy..." She turned and faced Raven, a trickle of blood from the blade at her throat, making it's way down her skin.

"...when I asked him to."

Her hands fell behind her to support her as she turned her attention away to look at Vahn. "Do you think I haven't thought this out. I'm not the same reckless child who was the single person in the arena who didn't think you could possibly be evil. The single person who had faith that you were a good person. I still refuse to believe that you are evil, but I am not a reckless child. I don't want to be a burden. I wasn't supposed to be alive. I should have never been born...."


Her head bent down and the blade would have dug into the underside of her chin if he didn't move it. One deep breathe, then two before she looked back up at him. "...but I was and I try to live my life the best way I know how. I've gone to see spirit mages, I've gone to doctors, I've had my body violated in ways that aren't exactly pleasurable. And they all give me mere months to live. I want to choose how I die. Is that so much to ask?"

*Hono was still visibly trembling, clenching her fists so tight that silver nails had dug into her skin and little crescents of blood were welling up* If I ever find the person who put that idea in your head they will pray for a quick death....

*shaking her head violently so that red hair flew around her she reached out and tapped Tellus on the forehead lightly* Sleep now, rest.... I'll be back...*leaving a little blood drop on the girl's forehead she turned on her heal and stepped away only to disappear in a flash of black sparkles*

***

*Rave needed to vent, and had long since learned that simply screaming at things never really helped.. and so when she stepped out of another flash of black sparkles onto the strange glass road in the middle of the desert she had every intension of throwing a serious hissy fit.... The wind suddenly whipped up throwing sand in violent waves all around the little red head, howling past her as she collapsed to the road and sat huddled with her face on her knees crying at the futility of it all.... Tellus was dying, and unless Munin could figure something out it was likely that she and Hono would find a similar fate in a short time...* cry

A few feet outside of the tent, Vahn stood there. His head bent forward a bit, shoulders slumped; even as he lit the cigarette. Needless to say, he wasn't liking what lay before him. Destruction in it's purest form, and akin to what he'd witnessed himself over 50 years ago.

"...Dammit." Tendrils of smoke wound themselves up, up and away. People were going on with their lives as best as they could. Picking through the rubble that remained of a home, carrying the remains of a loved one, or just doing the best they could in terms of coping.

And here he stood, in the same position as he'd been in so long ago... and now with an added burden on his shoulders. Yellowed eyes stared out to a smoky sky, the clouds darkening. Rain... it's actually going to rain tonight, of all nights...

Dain smiled gently, with an unnerving fatherly quality. "I'm just a meddling old man who cares too much about the place he lives in."

Dain laughed aloud at her comment, even as he finished with the bandages. "Hohohoho... a Doctor he isn't. He knows he didn't do much, and neither did I by all rights."

Pulling up a nearby stool, he sat by her bedside; his large frame stretching out. "But the important thing is that he did something. Right?"

His colored eyes closed for a moment, as if in mental debate over something, ignoring her query as to his name. "Well, as far I know, he didn't come here by choice. My grandchildren found him within the Mesas' and brought him back to my house. He came with another, went by the name of Sunstrike."

He stared at Tellus now, hands folding in his lap. "I'll assume you too are from the north?"

"Uncle? Oh my... he sure gets around." Dain leaned back on the stool, but not som much far back that he would end up falling off the seat.

"As far as I was aware, Vahn had no family." She seemed to know Sunstrike as well, so he assumed they were all from the same area.

Full moon sways
Gently in the night of one fine day

He walked forward, kicking stray pebbles out of his path. Both hands were stuffed into the pockets of his jeans, the expression on his face solemn. The cigarette drooped between his lips, threatening to fall free and to the ground.

On my way
Looking for a moment with my dear

"He's always been like that... I suppose." Dain closed his eyes, even as ahand reached up and cupped his chin; stroking softly. "It's disheartening, how much he seems to help others, yet never can help himself."

Full moon waves
Slowly on the surface of the lake

Vahn lifted his head, his feet slowing down, even as he came to the edge of Strata. there was no gate anymore; torn down and in complete ruins. Yellowed eyes stared forward, the waves of heat from the desert rolling along.

You were there
Smiling in my arms for all those years

"I guess even after 50 years, a person never changes." Dain smiled softly enough, before pressing a hand against Tellus' forehead. "He's seen a lot of death.. experience much loss. More so than you can imagine."

What a fool
I don't know 'bout tomorrow
What it's like to be
Ah...

The cigarette fell, rolling a bit against the sand. The embers fizzled, before a greave came down and crushed it. Vahn's head was tilted upwards; eyes on the horizon.

His gaze was long and hard, as if whatever he was staring at, he refused to lose track of. Like once he lost it, it was gone for good.

I was fool
Couldn't let myself to go
Even though I feel
The end

"He might not be all too forward with himself, but I'm sure he cares about you. Us men can be so stubborn sometimes..." He paused for a moment, before leaning backwards.

"After all, you do look like her. So perhaps it hurts a little more for him."

Old love affair
Floating like a bird resting her wings

Ashe... Vahn's right hand lifted up, the Hand of Efreet formed and glowing softly. He made an L with his thumb and finger; framing the setting sun. ...Sunstrike... Everyone, let's keep moving forward.

"...No matter what."

You were there
Smiling in my arms for all those years

"Oh, you'd be surprised how much people are like books. Every new chapter always has something you never could have guessed, and every page gets you closer to understanding their story, little by little."

Dain leaned back a bit on the stool, eyes staring upwards.

"Rumour has it that millenia ago when the violent confrontation of two ancient kingdoms, reigned on the then called continent of Zelandria, a man of unspeakable power had settled in a proud citadel on the coast of the sea, which was known as Sorrow's Keep. The lands were without kings back then, magic meant dominance and fear. The people had to obey those who had enough power to oppress them, and in Sorrow's Keep lived one of those men. The fortress was sheltered on the west side by the Mithral and to the east had a great swamp, which should become home to many a dark creature, bred there to spread terror over the lands and to challenge would-be adventurers. Draeger Fah, this was the man's name, was not a God, but he endeavoured to match them in power eventually. He was described as a rigorous Lord already before he fell victim to an uncurable deadly illness, which caused him to go on a quest for immortality. Finally with the help of alchemists, magi and an artifact they produced together, Draeger enslaved the great beast known as Efreet, and literally merged with it. He turned to a half man and half devil creature. Draeger became endowed with the lust for power characteristic to the race of men and at the same time he also bore the brutal and unforgiving force of the netherworldly creature he had raised, in him - the latter he summoned in a place known today simply as the "Pit". Everyone who had helped him to become what he was, had to pay with his life, while Draeger himself became stronger and stronger and even more unpredicatable. People called him also the "Beast", and there are many tales where the gruesome details are revealed on how he preyed upon the life force of unfortunate people, who couldn't escape his hunger for the flesh and the souls of the innocent.

With him Draeger had demons hailing from the depths of the abyss below Sorrow's Keep, the undead and corrupted magi, emerging from the Pit, and he also bred monsters in the swamps around his citadel. Filled with hatred and anger on everything alive these creatures spread their master's infamy in all directions. Commanding his dark minions, Draeger did not only feast on people, he drained energy from the world around him, making the lands withered and dead while he himself grew in power and strength, transforming more and more into a devil. Sorrow's Keep became a place of evil, a black hole in the once thriving landscape of the now dead Zelandria Kingdom, sucking all life into its gorge of darkness.

While the lands drowned in the chaos he had caused, Draeger thought that his dominion over the region east of the Mithral would go unnoticed for a long time - until he had gained enough supporters to challenge other powerful rulers. However, even though many were embroiled in their own affairs, Draeger was in the end confronted by: A knight, a High Priestess, a Thief, and the leader of a band of elves; and his dark machinations were put to an end when his spiritual magical connection to the beings of the Netherworlds was skewered. The portal from where he had summoned his horrific helpers was destroyed in a desperate joint effort and the citadel crumbled to dust. But what the attackers did see when storming Sorrow's Keep was unlike anything they could have anticipated in their wildest dreams: undead, necromancers and numerous beasts of the Netherworlds defended their master. Actually he was barely recognizeable as a human being - people say that he had grown to the size of a tower and that he had six arms, moving like a spider, constantly consuming the auras of the fallen. When the hordes of the dark minions charged, so tell the tales, the knight began to charge straight into their flanks, hacking and slashing vigorously, supported by his female companion, the preistess, while the elves opened fire with their bows. Finally the preistess rose in to the sky unleashing water funnels of devastation upon the black hordes. Drager seeing this screamed, calling his brother, the deadly Gamosh-Ra, Demon of Lightning, who pushed the grey back to the ground with its might. Yet the battle raged on for days, night and day, unceasingly, until just two of the attackers remained. Standing fast against the hordes, knowing they had no chance unless they'd unite their powers, and so they did. A huge funnel, miles upon miles wide, ripped through the heavens, chunks of the earth itself were torn from the ground, magical energies encased the typhoon as the Leviathan was called upon. Beholding this spectacle, one would have thought the gods themselves had intervened, and maybe they even did, as for a moment this raw power was heard vibrating acrossall the world, then it was gone all of a sudden, as were most of the defenders and also the citadel.

The remaining demons, irritated and guideless, ripped their former, now barely living master to pieces, but then found their end when most of the once gigantic citadel was swallowed by the earth as if it had never existed."